Mind the Gap - Hand Me Down

Back in London on a frog research mission, I quickly found myself speeding around on sweaty tubes getting dizzy from the bright lights, flashing ads and competitive consumption. I found some breathing space back at an old haunt, howies, on Carnaby Street, Soho.

howies is a British clothing company with a conscience who, since 1995, have grown out of a living room into an influential organisation with a strong online presence. The founders of the yearly Do Lectures (TED talks in a Tipi) they also host monthly Wee Dos out of their stores which allow discussion, debate and learning about social and environmental responisbility - the keys to their overall aim:

The Aim to be Lower Impact

Hopefully we are smart enough to realise that everything we do, screws something up.
As a company, we have to realise that.
There is no perfect clothing company.
 Let's be honest with ourselves and with our customers about that.
What we are doing at howies is trying to find ways to lessen that impact.

An attendee of the first Do Lectures, and an online howies fan, I was keen to see recent launches at the store and check out recent additions to the book shelves, which turn a wait outside the changing rooms into an eye-opening education.

On this visit I was introduced to the Hand-Me-Down collection, a series of bags and jackets which have been designed to last. In an attempt to reduce impact, design and material choices have been made with the intention that the collection will stand the test of time. Moving away from the fashion notion of 'This Season's' the collection are bought with a contract, made between the owner, the item and howies. The contract states the person who the owner will hand-them-down to if they do ever stop using the them.

The Hand-Me-Down Story from howies goes like this;

We live in times of limited resources but unlimited desire to consume them. The answer though is real simple: to consume less as a consumer; to make a better designed product as a manufacturer.

Going forward we will have to take more responsibility for our consumption. The manufacturer and the consumer will both have to share that responsibility.

We live in interesting times.

From where we stand as a manufacturer, a product that keeps working for longer uses less-resources in the end. The key ingredients to this are quality and good design.

To make something well, you know, the best you can do, means going that extra mile. Every stitch, every zip, every little feature considered. The weakest points made strong. Then, and only then, can we say that we have fully understood the responsibility of making something.

This product is guaranteed for a minimum of 10 years from the date of original purchase. The chances are it will last a good deal longer than that. So now you have to decide whom you’d like to hand this product down to? Err??

(David Hieatt, howies co-founder)

I am not sure how successful the Hand-Me-Down collection has been so far, or how it might be applied to other product types. Will the sales will be high enough? Will the contract lived up to its promise? What is clear, is that their aim is a challenge all manufacturers have to face - How to be Lower Impact - and amongst the bright lights of Soho, howies have the Biggest Impact  when it comes to another of their aims, to make us THINK.